URI Healthcare Workforce Development trains health workers statewide

The office that for years has provided accredited continuing education and professional development programs in the URI College of Pharmacy has expanded beyond pharmacists to offer training programs to health care professionals across the board.

MJ Kanaczet, the university’s new director of Healthcare Workforce Development is working with the state’s Department of Labor and Training (DLT), the Executive Office of Health & Human Services (EOHHS), and other key stakeholders to coordinate the state’s efforts to provide and anticipate the training needs of health and human services agencies and staff.

According to director Kanaczet, who continues to lead the College of Pharmacy’s office of continuing professional development, “We have evolved into a training center for the healthcare workforce. Through our Real Jobs RI ‘Transforming Health in Rhode Island Partnership,’ we have the capacity to support any healthcare agency’s training needs that upskill health care workers and ultimately improve patient outcomes or a health care provider’s capacity to deliver good outcomes. We have worked with the RI Department of Health for several years to increase our understanding of what these specific training needs are and are now in a position to partner with healthcare facilities to develop and support targeted training initiatives.”

Many needed programs were identified when the state convened a Healthcare Workforce Summit, which resulted in Health Workforce Planning and Implementation Workgroups , to launch a public/private health workforce planning and implementation process. URI, as well as other colleges and universities in the state, meet with health agencies regularly to discuss the state’s healthcare workforce challenges and to learn what training is needed. Kanaczet’s office, with support from URI’s Institute for Integrated Health and Innovation, applies for funding through Real Jobs RI and works to develop training programs that address those needs. Some of the programs are outsourced, but many are created and taught by URI professors.

One such program is Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), a national skills-based training course that teaches participants about mental health and substance-use issues. MHFA is coordinated at URI by Lindsey Anderson, director of the URI Psychological Counseling Center, and delivered to health care workers at Coastal Medical Inc.’s facilities around the state. Kanaczet’s office also coordinates continuous quality improvement training for the state’s accountable entity organizations, as well as the medication technician training program for Certified Nursing Assistants with URI’s Office of Strategic Initiatives. The medication technician training, led by College of Pharmacy Associate Teaching Professor Patrick Kelly, trains CNAs to deliver medications at the state’s licensed long-term care facilities.

Going forward, Kanaczet anticipates being able to offer mental health first aid training to other accountable entity organizations like Rhode Island Primary Care Physicians Corporation and others. She is also planning to conduct a state-wide needs assessment to contribute to EOHHS’s efforts to support the Home and Community Based Services sector’s training needs.

“The foundation of what I’m doing now with the state is based on the track record of providing quality accredited education for pharmacists in the College of Pharmacy,” Kanaczet said. “Since the launch of URI’s Academic Health Collaborative, I began to look at the educational needs and professional competencies of the health care team and now have the opportunity to share our expertise with multiple health professionals. Hopefully, this will allow us to continue to expand our offerings to upskill the healthcare workforce and ultimately improve patient outcomes.”

Any health care agencies are interested in workforce training partnerships can visit the Healthcare Workforce Development at uri.edu/pharmce/workforcedevelopment/.